


Last Midnight

by faithfulcat111



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Blaming, Gen, actual major character death, if you know the story, literally a piece from my Into the Woods AU, mention of killing a giant, mention of magic, who knows - Freeform, will I ever write the rest of it, you'll figure out who really quick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 19:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithfulcat111/pseuds/faithfulcat111
Summary: With a giant in the land bent on killing Joan, the remaining characters in the woods are turning on each other out of anger and grief. But they quickly realize they have a much larger enemy than each other.Literally a piece from my Into the Woods AU that I've been developing.





	Last Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> I will say quickly here that yes I say that Patton had a wife. But I'm headcannoning that he didn't care what gender his loved one was, but wanted a child, so he married someone he loved that could give him one. Just go with it, please.

Patton growled as he yelled, “It’s because of you there’s a giant in our midst, and my wife is dead!”

Joan spun around, anger in their eyes as they stomped forward, “Oh, so this is my fault that I was given those beans? Who persuaded me to give away my cow for beans? And without those beans, there would have been no stalk to get up to the giants in the first place!”

“Wait a minute!” Patton snapped back, his eyes turning dark. “Magic beans for a cow so old that you had to tell a lie to sell it, which you told. Were they worthless beans? Or were they oversold? Tell us, who persuaded you to steal that gold!”

“See it’s your fault!” Talyn smirked, jumping down off the log they were standing on. 

“No!” Joan protested.

“Yes, it’s your fault!” Patton took another step forward so he was standing next to Talyn.

“No!” Joan protested again.

“Yes, it is,” Talyn argued.

“No, it’s not!” Joan argued back, stepping forward so the two were almost nose to nose.

“It’s true,” Patton crossed his arms, making it seem like the problem was settled.

“Wait a minute!” Joan, however, was not done arguing yet. “I only stole the gold to get my cow back from you!”

“So it’s your fault!” Talyn said, turning towards Patton.

“Yes!” Joan smirked at the older man.

Patton huffed and turned, stalking away from them and towards a figure sitting on the ground, “No it isn’t! I’d have kept those beans, but our house was cursed. He made us get the cow to get the curse reversed!”

Virgil, who had been sitting there biting his thumbnail, merely waved the group off, his thoughts clearly elsewhere, but still responding, “It’s his father’s fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place.”

“Oh, then it’s his fault!” Talyn pointed one finger up.

“So,” Virgil trailed off, gone in his own world again.

“It was his fault?” Roman asked, leaning against a tree, his arms wrapped around himself as he tried to follow what was happening. 

“No!” Joan tried to protest again.

“Yes, it is. It’s his,” Patton decided to himself.

“I guess,” Roman’s eyes dropped, another tremor going through him.

“Wait a minute!” Joan cut in again. “I chopped down the beanstalk. Right, that’s clear? But without any beanstalk then what’s queer is how did the second giant get down here in the first place? Second place?” He trailed off on that last part, more to himself than the others. 

“Yes!” Talyn agreed, clearly just bouncing back and forth to the most recent statement at this point.

“How?” Roman questioned while Patton started thinking. 

“Well, who had the other bean?” Joan pointed out.

“The other bean?” Roman asked, still slightly lost.

“The other bean!” Patton gasped, putting one hand over his mouth.

Joan turned towards Patton, “You pocketed the other bean.”

“I didn’t!” Patton started to protest before thinking about it more clearly, “Yes I did.”

“So it’s your fault?” Talyn asked.

“No it isn’t because I gave it to my wife,” Patton said, as he tried to think of what happened.

“So it’s her fault?” Talyn tried again.

“No, it isn’t!” Patton jerked his head up, his eyes flashing in anger again. Talyn stumbled backwards in slight shock.

“Then whose is it?” Roman took a step off the tree, at last, his arms still wrapped around himself.

“Wait a minute!” Patton took a second to think before turning towards Roman. Roman started stumbling backwards as the anger was suddenly redirected at him, “She exchanged that bean to obtain your shoe. So the one who knows what happened to that bean is you!”

Roman kept stumbling backwards as all three were advancing on him now, “You mean that old bean that your wife, oh dear. But I never knew… And so I threw… Well, don’t look here!” He finally ducked behind a tree, trying to hide from the group.

“So it’s your fault!” Talyn jumped around one side of the tree, scaring Roman out of his poor hiding spot.

“But-” Roman tried to protest. 

“See, it’s her fault!” Joan smirked.

“But-” Roman tried again.

But Joan continued as if they hadn’t heard Roman’s protest, “And it isn’t mine at all!”

Patton, however, did. “But what?” he demanded.

Roman gathered up his remaining courage and turned to Joan, “Well, if you hadn’t gone back up again-”

“We were needy!” Joan tried to protest.

“You were greedy!” Roman snapped. “Did you need that hen?”

“But I got it for my father!” Joan tried to explain.

“So it’s his fault then!” Talyn jumped back in again.

“Yes, and what about the harp in the third place?” Roman demanded.

Patton turned towards Joan, his arms crossing, “The harp, yes!”

Joan turned towards Talyn, “They went and dared me to!”

Talyn started stumbling back as the blame suddenly got turned to them, “I dared you to?”

“You dared me to!” Joan snapped. “They said that I was scared so they dared me!”

“No, I didn’t!” Talyn tried to protest furiously.

“So it’s your fault!” all three of them shouted.

“Wait a minute!” Talyn cried back, clearly not like their phrase being turned around back on them.

“If you hadn’t dared him to-” Roman started.

“And if you had left the harp alone, we wouldn’t be in trouble in the first place!” Patton turned angrily back at Joan.

At the same time, Talyn cut Roman off, arguing back, “Well if you hadn’t thrown away the bean in the first place!”

“Well, if he hadn’t raised them in the first place!” Roman yelled back, swinging one hand out towards where Virgil had stood, but had his back to them.

“Right! It’s you who raised them in the first place!” both Talyn and Joan shouted, realizing who Roman was blaming now. 

All four of them advanced on Virgil, shouting, “You’re responsible! You’re the one to blame! It’s your fault!” 

They are all suddenly cut off by a loud shushing sound that demanded to be heard over there accusatory yells. Virgil turned his head towards them, one finger still over his lips, the eyeshadow under his eyes had grown even darker in the woods dying light.

He turned towards the group, a sad smile on his face that definitely didn’t reach his eyes. Patton gave a slight gasp as he realized his baby was in the former witch’s arms, but frowned when he realized the boy was fast asleep. Virgil very slowly and quietly began talking, “It’s the last midnight. It’s the last wish. It’s the last midnight. Soon it will be boom- squish!” He got a more genuine smile as he leaned in the say the last word directly to the child. He looked back up at the group, the smile draining from his face, “Told a little lie, stole a little hold, broke a little vow, did you?” He got that wicked, joyless smile on his face as he leaned forward towards Roman, “Had to get your Prince.” He turned to look at Joan, “Had to get your cow.” He finally turned towards Talyn, “Have to get your wish, doesn’t matter how. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.” Virgil took a step back before stepping forward again to hand the baby over to Patton. The child started to cry again and Patton tried to hush him as Virgil continued, “It’s the last midnight. It’s the boom- splat! Nothing but a bast midnight. Everybody smashed flat! Nothing we can do… Not exactly true. We can always give her the child.” Roman quickly took a step in front of Joan as Joan stepped back in fear, but Virgil just scoffed, not even looking at them, “No, of course, what really matters is the blame. Someone you can blame. Fine, if that’s the thing you enjoy, placing the blame, if that’s the aim, give me the blame.” Virgil turned, his eyes locking with Joan’s, and he lurched forward, “Just give me the child.”

“No!” this time Roman, Patton, and Talyn all stepped in front of Joan, effectively blocking Virgil from them.

The corner of Virgil’s mouth dropped as he snarled, “No? You’re so nice.” But the way he said it made it sound so horrible. “You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice. I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just right! I’m the witch! You’re the world! I’m the hitch, I’m what no one believes, I’m the witch! You’re all liars and thieves like his father!” Virgil swung out one hand, pointing directly at Patton. “Like his son will be too! Oh, why bother? You’ll just do what you do!” Virgil raised his arms and even though they all knew that his magic was gone, all four could have sworn they could hear the wind howling and the tingling of electricity in the air as Virgil shouted, “It’s the last midnight! So goodbye all! Coming at you fast, midnight! Soon you’ll see the sky fall!

Virgil suddenly reached down into a pouch on his belt, “Here you want a bean?” They gasped as he plucked a bean out of his hand and threw it at them, “Have another bean!” Roman, Talyn, and Joan started scuttling around, picking up the beans where they fell, trying not to let another beanstalk emerge from those blasted beans. Patton did his best to follow them, but holding a sleeping child did not help. Virgil continued to shout at them as he threw all the beans he held, “Beans were made for making you rich! Plant them and they soar! Here, you want some more? Listen to the roar, giants by the score! Oh well, you can blame another witch!” 

He had run out of beans and was now standing on a mound in the middle of a clearing, still screaming as the wind was actually howling now, “It’s the last midnight! It’s the last verse! Now, before it’s past midnight, I’m leaving you my last curse.” Virgil suddenly turned towards where the four were standing, his eyes wild by now, but his volume suddenly dropped with thunder in the background, “I’m leaving you alone. You can tend the garden, it’s yours.” He reached into his pouch again and the four tensed, but instead, he just pulled out a strand of cord with an old key tied to it. He threw it at the group and Roman jumped in front of the group to stumble and catch it. “Separate and alone, everybody down on all fours.” Virgil turned away from them and screamed up at the sky, “All right, Mother! You won! Lost the beans again!” 

Leaves were starting to be swept up from the forest floor, swirling around Virgil, and the group started to crouch down in fear as they realized that this wasn’t Virgil’s magic making a sudden comeback, but something else entirely. “Punish me the way you did then!” Virgil screamed again. “Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch and the gloom and the doom and the boom!” The leaves continued to grow closer and closer together in their ever-quickening swirling pattern as lightning began to strike around the edges of the clearing. Virgil suddenly let out a shrill shriek as the group could barely see him anymore in all the chaos, just one hand reaching up as he appeared to be falling. Suddenly his cry was cut off and everything settled, but as the group looked up, they could see no sign of the witch, only a small dent where he had stood on the leaves. For he had been right, he was leaving them utterly alone. 


End file.
